What changes can we make to our lives to deal with the economic and energy crises ahead? Have you already started making preparations? Got tips to share?
Onion seeds are already planted in pots on the windowsills. Overwintering sets of onions, garlic, and some broadbeans are already battling with the snow.
My box of seeds is far too full to list all the contents - I got a tad carried away ordering . My biggest growing areas will be dedicated to potatoes, onions, leeks, carrots, parsnips and broad beans. (Runner beans and French beans don't do well for me - they'll still get a little corner of course.)
The greenhouse will be tomatoes, courgettes and cucumbers. I might also be given a polytunnel this year. OH is very keen to build one - on condition I fill it! (As if he needed to ask! )
Fruit bushes include rasberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants, gooseberries, apple, pear and cherry. (Most newly planted last year.) I have also dug up some elderberries from my mum's place - they are supposed to be excellent for warding off flu etc. So they'll go in this week end.
Perennials include rhubarb, Jerusalam artichokes and Globe artichokes and I hope to start some asparagus.
I have also just ordered some cobnuts off the internet. Funny thing was - once I went to pay I discovered that the seller was just up the road. So I'm going to collect them myself. AND thanks to the Peplers I have also decided to buy sweet chestnut trees too! (Not quite a wood's worth - but perhaps a dozen.)
Last year was my first "big effort" year; although I've been dabbling for many years with little bits here and there.
I get huge pleasure out of this, it's incredible. Although it could be a sign of my age - someone told me that "You'll know when you've hit your forties because suddenly gardening seems like a good idea!"
I know what you mean on the seed ordering front. I'm actually struggling to work out planting order and what goes where etc etc... too many seeds. And I still need to put in my real seeds order. I've got most of mine from Garden Organic this year.....
Got 5 x 3kg of spuds to plant
Jim
For every complex problem, there is a simple answer, and it's wrong.
"Heaven and earth are ruthless, and treat the myriad creatures as straw dogs" (Lao Tzu V.i).
Planting pah! Some of us are enjoying late summer...
I'm harvesting: tomatoes (what the mites have left), eggplant, courgettes, french beans, corn (now finished), sweet peppers, cucumbers, lemons.
Still to come are spuds, pumpkins, grapes (if the birds leave any), almonds, pears and apples
Already gone are plums & apricots.
As you might be able to tell the climate is a tab warmer than the UK in Melbourne (more like France). The downside is bugger all water in our reservoirs so we can only water twice a week (not enough in the HOT summer) and the soils are in general a lot less fertile than the UK. It takes real effort with compost etc to get things gong here and the heat seems to make plants more susceptible to pests. Even so I feel I'm finally starting to get the hang of this veggie lark - still lots to learn though!
[BTW I'm turning 40 tomorrow - gardening has already seemed like a good idea for a while though...]
Anyone can at least be self sufficient in lettuce, even in a boat! All you need is a trough planter, some soil or potting compost and some cut and come again lettuce seed. I use "Salad Bowl". 2 rows of seeds thinly sown after about 5 weeks will provide enough leaves for two people for about 4 months. 3 sowings a year will cover the whole year remembering to sow the new one before the old one has finished. The winter one can be brought in on a window ledge or porch (or cratch on yer boat). My trough planters are about 6 inches wide and deep, and about 18 inches long.
Sally wrote:someone told me that "You'll know when you've hit your forties because suddenly gardening seems like a good idea!"
Ehhh... I've only just hit my thirties, and gardening seems like a good idea!!
Apologies to all younger gardeners - I too started much younger than forty. The statement amused me because the year I really got going (planting rasberry canes, rhubarb and stuff) was also the year I turned forty and this comment was made to me a couple of years later. It just rang true at the time!
However I must admit 2 things:
1. I have more time now than in my twenties/thirties as the kids are so much more independent.
2. I have more patience to wait for the results and to see the projects long term!
Going through some drawers looking for stuffed envelopes the other day and I found LOADS OF SEEDS I'd forgotten all about...'matoes, cucumbers and celeriac fer crying out loud, what on earth was I doing? (answer: going a bit mad in the Lost Gardens of Heligan)!
Does anyone know anything helpful about growing Celeriac from seeds?
first of all I put virtually no effort into this other than planting and very occassionally watering, so here is how things turned out for me last year:
My backgarden is not huge (it's about 70 ft x 30 ft).
Here's what I grew in it last year (all in 50cm containers from B&Q using bags of soil also bought from B&Q)
I grew an absolute shedload of Potatoes last year.
In 12 x 50cm pots I got about 3 months supply of potatoes starting around end of july after having planted the pots in mid march.
I will be doing the same this year but with 24 pots.
I also built up some experience of composting. Though it appears to work (i.e. new soil appears out of nowhere) it stinks to high heaven.
My broccoli sucked though and so did my cabbage. Both of them were subject to incessant and continued attacks by slugs, snails, caterpillars and little white insects. My cabbage was completely eaten. My broccoli did better but the voume was pretty poor and I refuse to use fertiliser since it (apparently) can't be created without oil so I don't see the point in using it.
My tomatoes failed to grow outdoors until the last minute and then died just as marble sized little green tomatoes started to pop out in october.
My spring onions and normal onions were brilliant and like my potatoes I got shedloads of them through pretty much six months last year. Likewise garlic.
My herbs failed to take: I got one pitiful little coriander plant and other than oregano (which worked beatifully) the rest were a waste of time.
My son planted some strawberries and we got maybe a handful of (very small) strawberries (2 each for the four of us) each week from about july through to october.
Our two fruit trees failed to take (I bought them last january) - a cherry tree which gave a single cherry and an apple tree which gave two small apples which were eaten by birds.
Peas: I grew buckets and buckets of peas. The peas are a joy to watch and they taste absolutely brilliant. Also massively resistant to little caterpillar who failed to munch their way into the pods.
One thing to note: ALL of the food I grew myself tasted AMAZING!!!
It's worth doing it just for that.
On another note: it keeps small children entertained; the game of "crush the evil slugs and caterpillars who are trying to eat OUR food".
100% organic pesticide!!
In my garden I will be planting carrots, sugar snap peas, french beans, onion sets, brussel sprouts, tomatoes, peppers and potatoes. I also have my name down for an allotment on a site close to my house so hopefully will be able to greatly expand what I grow (apparently the waiting list is just over a year and I joined it about 1 year ago).
careful_eugene wrote:In my garden I will be planting carrots, sugar snap peas, french beans, onion sets, brussel sprouts, tomatoes, peppers and potatoes. I also have my name down for an allotment on a site close to my house so hopefully will be able to greatly expand what I grow (apparently the waiting list is just over a year and I joined it about 1 year ago).
fifthcolumn wrote:I also built up some experience of composting. Though it appears to work (i.e. new soil appears out of nowhere) it stinks to high heaven.
Same with ours. Apparently means it needs more 'starch' (straw, sawdust, shredded secret documents etc) and less nitrogen (anything green that goes slimy)
fifthcolumn wrote:Our two fruit trees failed to take (I bought them last january) - a cherry tree which gave a single cherry and an apple tree which gave two small apples which were eaten by birds.
Nowt's supposed to happen in the 1st year. In fact if it does, you're supposed to take the fruit off or it drains too much of the tree's goodies. Our fruit trees went in last (early) spring, we're not even expecting anything from them this year.
All the things you describe as abject failures are things that need lots of sun, of which 2007 was rather short.
fifthcolumn wrote:...game of "crush the evil slugs and caterpillars who are trying to eat OUR food".
100% organic pesticide!!
fifthcolumn wrote:
Our two fruit trees failed to take (I bought them last january) - a cherry tree which gave a single cherry and an apple tree which gave two small apples which were eaten by birds.
The majority of cherries are self sterile and need another variety for pollination. It is not quite so bad for apples but they do better if fertilized by another. As long as you or a near neighbor has the complimentary varieties, it should fruit well the subsequent years. Cherries are one of the first fruits of the season.
fifthcolumn wrote:I also built up some experience of composting. Though it appears to work (i.e. new soil appears out of nowhere) it stinks to high heaven.
Same with ours. Apparently means it needs more 'starch' (straw, sawdust, shredded secret documents etc) and less nitrogen (anything green that goes slimy)
Lack of oxygen too maybe? I'm just chucking fruit peelings and plant cuttings and leaves and teabags and shredded cardoard etc into large plastic tubs with a sealable lids, and then I roll them around occassionally to mix up the contents. I noticed at first it was a bit "methaney" too, but after perforating a few holes in the side it seems to be composting OK without being smelly. I'm hoping to improve this system by making/acquiring something like this:
Anyone use one of these (or similar)?
"If we don't change our direction, we are likely to wind up where we are headed" (Chinese Proverb)
fifthcolumn wrote:
Our two fruit trees failed to take (I bought them last january) - a cherry tree which gave a single cherry and an apple tree which gave two small apples which were eaten by birds.
The majority of cherries are self sterile and need another variety for pollination. It is not quite so bad for apples but they do better if fertilized by another. As long as you or a near neighbor has the complimentary varieties, it should fruit well the subsequent years. Cherries are one of the first fruits of the season.
Cherry type "Stella" polinates itself.
Apples have letters (ABCDE) which tell you when they flower (A is the earliest), you want a pair that flower at roughly the same time (e.g. B and C). When you run out of room, bribe a neigbour to plant one
fifthcolumn wrote:The peas are a joy to watch and they taste absolutely brilliant.
I'm not the only saddo pea-spotter then. It's dark when I get home in the evenings but I still occassionally nip out with a torch to see what the peas have been up to during the day!
I've been trying to guesstimate how many peas I'll get per plant, and therefore how many servings per crop. At 2 batches of 10 plants x about 10 pods per plant x about 6 or 7 peas per pod it won't amount to much more than about 1200 peas I reckon, which is er... how many servings?!
"If we don't change our direction, we are likely to wind up where we are headed" (Chinese Proverb)
. My biggest growing areas will be dedicated to potatoes, onions, leeks, carrots, parsnips and broad beans. (Runner beans and French beans don't do well for me - they'll still get a little corner of course.)
(As if he needed to ask!
)
